The Grade II listed two bedroom flat for sale through Townends for £249,950 has probably been home for short periods in the past to some of the biggest names in cinema history. The art deco pad is on the first floor of a block built in the 1930s to accommodate actors and technicians making films at Ealing Studios.

The five colonial Dutch style buildings on the Hanger Lane estate were constructed by R Toms & Partners for the Bell Property Company. Present day residents of Ealing Village still have the swimming pool, tennis courts and club house that were part of the facilities which helped to keep the visiting stars and directors in the style to which they were accustomed while they were away from home shooting a movie.

The studios, currently being redeveloped at a cost of £50m, are the oldest in the world still in production.

Will Barker, a pioneer of the film making industry, originally acquired the site in 1902 but the studios didn’t come into their own until the early 1930s when Basil Dean, owner of Associated Talking Pictures arrived on the scene. In 1938 he was joined by Michael Balcon as head of production and the rest, as the script says, is cinema history.

Films like The Ladykillers, The Lavender Hill Mob, Passport to Pimlico and Kind Hearts and Coronets made Ealing Studios a legend. The stages and offices are steeped in history having survived the onset of the talkies, two world wars and the more recent technological advances of film and TV.

This week, studio bosses are at the Toronto Film Festival presenting the World Premiere of Stephan Elliot’s latest comedy Easy Virtue starring Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas.